Aubrey McCarthy (Independent)

We need to make sure there is accommodation for the Chair.

I am unusual here in that I wear two hats. A decade ago, I had a property in Dublin and rented it out to Dublin City Council, which said it did not need it any more. I then went to the Peter McVerry Trust and it did not want it so I short-term let it. I knew the legislation was coming and so I said, "I am going to jail if I do short-term lets and that is the end of that." However, I also wear another hat where I have homeless accommodation and transitional housing. We have about 200 people with the approved housing body I set up in accommodation and housing. I hear what Senator Fitzpatrick was saying about how vital it is to address the housing issues.

I feel we have not built enough houses and unfortunately, the witnesses are going to bear the brunt of that. I have heard and met up with Threshold, which argues that every home diverted to short-term letting is a potential home lost. You can see the unregulated in homes in Dublin that are short-term lets are contributing to a big crisis. I run a homeless cafe called The Lighthouse and we are meeting up to 500 people a day so I see both sides of it. On the other side of that, I see hosts like Ms Cahill who says she is not making a lot of money and yet, her granny flat was something that contributed to supporting her kids, etc. Much of those homes - the units the hosts here are representing - will never be houses. They are usually heritage structure barns, granny flats or tiny spaces.

We are talking about the same market but it does not seem to be the same market. I know that in Dublin city centre, that is a key issue. For the witnesses here, it seems to be something different. Can they quantify short-term lets that are barns, granny flats, etc.? Are there are any data to show such lets will never meet full-time homes?